Improvement in oil-cups for steam-engines



EY. Llanes. Uil-Cups fdr Stam-Engines.

N0. 156,291. Patented Oct. 27, 1874.

Wim-5 525- UNITED 'PATENT @Felon v EvAN J. .'JoNns, on INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

IMPnovEMENT IN onu-CUPS Fon STEAM-memes.

`Specification forming partof Letters 'Patent N o. 156,29Ldated October 27, 1874; application tiled March 19, 1874. 'f

To all whom it may concer/n:

Beit known that I, EvAN J. JONES, of In# taining the lubricating mate-rial, the automatically-operating valve for regulating the "flow of oil to the parts to ybe lubricated, the conducting-tube for the same, and the cock for shuttingoiieornmunication.between the steamchest of the engine and the oil-reservoir, and for vdriving oi' the Water of condensation; and Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the cock, showing the 'passages for the oil and for the water of i condensation.

4Corresponding letters denote like parts in the several figures.

This invention relates to a .certain improve- Vm ent in oil-cups for lubricating en ginevalves and it consists of an automatically-,operating valve, having its upperI surface chamfered orl stepped, and its lower surface tapering, and seated upon the cock-stem, upon which is fitted a vertically-adjustable cup withports for regulating the quantity of lubricant to be discharged at any one time, substantially as.`

hereinafter more fully set forth;

In order that the requisite amount of lubri eating material may be automatically and properly delivered from the reservoir to the` valve of the engine upon which the cup is placed,l and in such quantities as to meet the requirements of said valve without any waste of such material, I provide cock A, having upon its lower end a screw-thread for attachl ing it to the cover or some other part of' the.

chest, a suitable hexagonal or otherwise formed collarbein g provided for the application of a wrench. Above the collar alluded to there is Van enlargement, A1, as shown,through which, at a right angle toits axis, there is formed an aperture for the reception of a key, A2, in which there is an aperture, A3, for the passage `of the lubricating material, said aperture being at a right angle to the axis of the key, and through its central portion, in .order that when it is in one position it may register withan aperture formed`centrally through the cock and its stem, and allow the lubricating material to flow down to the valve; but when it is turned from such position one-fourth of a revolutionsaid passage shallbe closed and the aperture A4 be made to register with a passage, A5, which passes vertically from the longitudinal aperture in the cock A to theoilreservoir. ln order that the water resulting from the condeilisa-tion of steam in the reservoir may be drawn o'if at the proper times, there is formed in the end oi' the key A2 which is opposite to the one upon which the handle for turning it is placed, an opening, A6, which is in l-ine with its axis, and extends inward, to and registers with the aperture A5, so that when .the key is in the position last described said `water may be `drawn o' -through the two last-n amedopenings. Above the'enlarged portion A1 of thccock A there is a neck, the upper end of which is provided with a screwthread, uponwhichthe reservoir B is screwed, said neckbeing of such a diameter as to allow of the aperture A5 being formed in it. The reservoir B may be of any form and dimensions required, its Yends being furnished with heads, in each of which there is an opening with screw-threads in them, the lowerone being for the purpose Yoffattaching it to the neck of the cock A, and the upper one for the reception of the cup D, the upper portion of which, for convenience in handling when in use, may be made of wood, its lower portion .beingof metal, to enable it to form a steamchamber for a purpose soon vto be described. Upon the upper portion of the cock Athere is a stem, which reaches nearly or quite to the upper inner surface .of 'the reservoir B, and has upon its upper end ya screw-thread for the reception of a cup, E, the lower portion of which is of sufficient size to receive said stem, while its upper end is so reduced as to pass up into a chamber formed in the metal portion of cup D, but is not of suicient size to iill said chamber, the space between it and the wall of the cup forming the steam-chamber above referred to. Within the cup E there is placed the automatically-moving valve F, it resting, when closed, insa seat formed upon the upper end of the stem of the cock A, and closing the passage in the same, as shown in Fig. 2. The valve F, which. is made tapering on its lower surface, to titits seat in the upper end of the stem of the cock A,.is chamfered or stepped upon its upper surface, as seen in the two views of. Fig. 2, to prevent it from closing the ports d d in the cup E when it is opened, in order to allow the lubricant entering said ports to pass into the cup E and continue down under the said valve into the stem of the cock A, which conducts it to the parts to be lubricated,

It will be seen that by this construction of c. valve a supply of oil or other lubricant is 4provided at every stroke of the piston, making Y chest of an engine, the reservoir is to be lled f with some lubricating material, at which time the valve Fwill rest upon its seat and pre- -vent the passage of any of such material to said chest, but so soon as steam is admitted and the induction and eduction valve commences to move, differences of pressure will exist in the chest sufliciently at times to raise the automatically-acting valve F by the stem which passes up through the stem of cock A. /Vhen it becomes desirable to lubricate the valve of the engine, the key of the cock A is to be turned so as to have the hole A3 formed in it, register with the passage through the -stem .ofthe cock, when, .as the induction- -valve moves into such a position as to close all the passages from the steam-chest, the pressure therein will be suiiicient to raise -valve F, and a portion of steam will pass said valve and flow into the reservoir above the oil, and thus form an equilibrium ot' pressure in the reservoir and in the steam-chest, as a consequence of which a portion of the lubri-vv eating material will low downward through the apertures d d in thecup E and under valvei .F into the chest sufficient to lubricate thev valve until the operation is repeated, said quantity being regulated by raising and lowerv 'ing said cup, and thus leaving a greater or less space between it and the upper end of the A.stem of the cock for the oil to flow through.

When the induction-valve of the engine has .beenmoved to such a position as to allow the 'steam from the chest to 'ow into the cylinder, the pressure in said chest will be reduced to such an extent as to cause the valve F to drop to and rest upon its seat, and thus the supply of lubricating material will be cut off, and the steam which had previously passed into the reservoir will be condensed, and the water resultin g therefrom Wi-ll take the place of the oil which passed out, when, upon the return of the induction-valve to the position in which it closes all of the ports leading from the chest, the pressure will again rise until the valve F will be again raised, and thus the operation of furnishing or regulating the quantity-ot' oil to the induction-valve will be repeated.

It is apparent that if the water resulting from the condensation of the steam admitted to the reservoir be insufcient to supply the place of the oil vat each movement of the valve of the engine, yet the movement ot'- the parts will not be al'ected thereby, and they will keep on admitting steam until a suflicient amount of water has resulted from the condensation thereof to bring the oil up to the discharging-point, and this will occur so frequently as to make it certain that the valve and cylinder of the engine will always be kept properly lubricated.

It follows, as a matter of course, that the water ofl condensation. will settle to the bottom of the` reservoir, as its specific gravity is greater than that of the oil, and hence only oil will be delivered to the steam-chest, and

the water may be ,drawn oli' from lthe reservoir at any time by turning the key A2, soas to cause the communication between said reservoir and the chest to be out oft' and the discharge-passage A4 to-register with A5. a When the water has been drawn ott', as described, the reservoir may be again iilled with oil by unserewing the cup B and passing it in through the opening thus formed.

EVAN J. JONES.

l Witnesses:

HENRY WEssE, H. P. STEWART. 

